Cocaine Haul Costs Colombian 30 Years, $30,000

November 19, 1985|By Jim Leusner of The Sentinel Staff

A Colombian convicted earlier this year of importing more than 500 pounds of cocaine into the United States in 1981 and 1982 -- including 214 pounds seized in DeLand -- was sentenced Monday to 30 years in federal prison and fined $30,000.

Fernando ''Freddie'' Carmona, 36, of New York, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp of Orlando to serve a nine-year special parole term after his release.

Carmona was convicted in October of three counts of importation, conspiracy and possession of cocaine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Calvacca accused Carmona of being a ''chief lieutenant'' who headed U.S. operations for a Colombian drug ring.

He had faced up to 45 years in prison.

During the trial, two pilots who participated in three drug flights from Colombia and the Bahamas testified that Carmona hired them.

Carmona's attorney, Paul Goldberger of New York, however, claimed that the two men were hired to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States for Carmona. Goldberger said Carmona was not a drug smuggler, but was implicated in drug deals in an effort by the pilots to receive reduced sentences in criminal cases against them.

The pilots, Phillip Walmsley, 35, of Port Washington, N.Y., and Henry ''Rocky'' Romano, 60, a former New Yorker now living at an undisclosed place in Florida, were arrested six months after federal agents seized a plane loaded with cocaine at the DeLand Municipal Airport in December 1981.

Calvacca told the judge Monday that Carmona also was responsible for the severe beating of Walmsley by several inmates at the Seminole County jail last month. Goldberger denied those claims.

In other sentencings Monday:

-- Three current and former nurserymen were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 2 1/2 to seven years for buying cocaine from undercover federal agents last July.

Claude R. Violette, 42, of Clermont, received the stiffest sentence after being convicted last month of buying 2.2 pounds of cocaine from U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Violette claimed he met with the two nurserymen and agents to set up a plant deal, but the judge called the story ''incredible.''

Timothy Blalock, 36, of Apopka, who owns Blalock Foliage Co., was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $5,000 for attempting to buy another 2.2 pounds of cocaine from the same agents in a related deal.

Blalock has said he hoped to resell the cocaine to ease cash-flow problems with a house he had for sale. He also acknowledged an addiction to cocaine.

A third defendant, former nurseryman Kenneth Walker, 30, who introduced Blalock and Violette to agents, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

-- A Seminole County man who pleaded guilty in September to possessing a destructive device was sentenced to five years' probation.

Garth Kamerling, 31, an unemployed computer programmer who had said he had drinking problems at the time of his arrest and was despondent because of a recent divorce, told the judge that he was an engineer who liked to build things.

''I certainly chose the wrong thing to build,'' Kamerling told the judge. He said he had no ''malicious intent'' toward anyone when he built the bomb.

Sharp ordered Kamerling to live in Michigan with his parents, continue counseling and not to possess any firearms or bombs. He was released to the custody of his parents in September after being held in a federal prison hospital for six months.

He had faced up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

Kamerling was arrested by Seminole County deputies and agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in April. A search of his trailer turned up three bottles packed with explosives and a ''dead man switch'' used by suicidal terrorists.

-- An Osteen man convicted last month of possessing 2,700 marijuana plants and operating a methamphetamine laboratory at his home was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison and fined $10,000.

Joseph Clarence Genest, 38, of 9 Iron Bend Trail, also was ordered by Sharp to serve a three-year special parole term.

Genest was arrested in May after DeLand police and Volusia deputies received a tip that pot was being grown on the premises. During a search of the home and several greenhouses, police found chemicals and laboratory equipment used to make methamphetamine, a stimulant commonly known as ''speed.''